Cozener

Summary:
All she can do is fight. Fight, and never back down or give up. Never show any hurt or pain, be brave and show her enemies a strong face. War is a hard thing to do. Bella Swan is close to just losing it. Her fiance is kept down with the power of another Volturi member, who is ruthlessly trying to capture her and all of her family-siblings and Cullens. She's the only one who can stop the fight. But can she find it in herself to do it? Sequel to Deceiver.

Notes:
Most charecters are owned by Stephenie Meyers. Becka, Aaron, Alex, KJ, Jasmine and the new Volturi members are all just a prt of my imagination that I created to go with the plot.

14. Chapter 14

I was sure that I had been staring at him for over a minute, just waiting for someone to jump out and yell ‘April Fools!’ But no one did, and I continued to stare at Aro.

He chuckled. “It seems that you weren’t exactly expecting that were you, my dear? You seem to have such a powerful knowledge of your friends and of yourself, but have you ever considered anyone else to be something besides what they seem?” Though I knew he wasn’t upset, I could hear the clear scolding in his tone.

“I only assume what I am showed to believe,” I said carefully. “Though please tell me the reason I should see you as someone who would willingly let people go when you already blackmailed them into going to you in the first place?”

He winced slightly, and his face became apologetic. “Ah, it seems you haven’t let go of the past as much as I believed you may have. A pity.”

I sighed. “Alright Aro. What is it that you have to tell me that will give me back my liberty? I really am quite intrigued, though it might not seem like it.”

Aro laughed lightly. “You truly are quite an interesting person, dear Bella.” Then he sighed. “But you shouldn’t be kept somewhere against your will. That isn’t the role of the Volturi. I finally convinced my brothers to allow you to go.”

I blinked once, and then raised my eyes at him. “And by brothers you mean Caius, of course.”

He gave me a sad smile and nodded. “Yes, my brother can be quite…forceful, when he wants to be. He is used to getting what he wants right away. He doesn’t like you and the others of your coven going against him. It’s taken me three years to get him to let you go.”

I nodded absently, and then gasped. Three years? That’s how long we had been kept in Italy. And if he wanted us to be able to go right away, he probably never even wanted us there in the first place. “He made you blackmail us, didn’t he?”

Aro cocked his head and me in confusion for a moment, and the understating lit up his face. “No, but Caius does have a gift for forging things, I can assure you. He’s definitely been around long enough to learn how. I actually thought he was the one who sent you all those letters. I didn’t imagine he would pretend to be me.”

“What did Marcus do about all of this? Did he want us to be able to go?”

Aro sighed. “Marcus acted like Marcus. He really didn’t care that much what Caius and I decided. He only said that you should at least be able to have some say in all of this.”

I nodded slowly, distracted by what was going on in my shield. It seemed the fight was getting a bit more violent. “Alright. But could you tell Jade and the people she brought with her to stop attacking my family?”

Aro’s eyes widened. “Why is Jade here? I sent her to Germany to deal with a coven there that we were having trouble with.”

My eyes narrowed. “So you didn’t know she also kidnapped Jasmine and KJ and is holding them somewhere? Or that she has Felix, Demetri and Alec under her thumb?”

Aro’s filmy eyes seemed to darken in color. “It seems that she’s been trying to work for her own gain recently, instead of for everyone’s. Can you take me to her?”

I shook my head. “Not as quickly as Becka can, but I can guide you there.” He nodded, and ran after me as I sped through the forest. I went slower than usual, not sure how fast the ancient could go. But he kept pace with me just fine and we got to the others in less than two minutes.

When I could hear them, I held my hand up and shielded both Aro and I. He nodded. “We wouldn’t want to disrupt them, would we?”

I shook my head. “I think we should wait for the opportunity to come to us. Nobody needs to get hurt by our sudden appearance. And having you here would just speed things up, I’m afraid.” Aro sighed.